1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel injection valve.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there has been known a fuel injection valve, which includes a nozzle body and a plate. Here, the nozzle body includes an injection orifice, through which fuel is injected, and a needle-receiving bore, which receives a needle controlling the injection through the injection orifice. Also, the plate is adjacently provided to the nozzle body for defining a fuel passage, through which fuel is supplied to the needle-receiving bore (see DE Patent Application Publication No. 10023952, which corresponds to US Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0060998, DE Patent Application Publication No. 10024703, and DE Patent Application Publication No. 10029297).
In the above fuel passage of the fuel injection valve disclosed in the above publications, fuel is required to be supplied to an outer periphery of a needle, which is received in a needle-receiving bore along an axial center thereof. Therefore, the fuel passage is formed in the plate, and is displaced from the needle-receiving bore. Also, the needle-receiving bore is provided with a cut, which connects the needle-receiving bore and the fuel passage.
However, because the above fuel injection valve includes the cut, when the injection pressure for injection becomes high, a stress is concentrated on the cut portion, thereby, a pressure resistance performance of the nozzle body may disadvantageously decrease. In contrast, in order to avoid formation of the cut, an inner diameter of the needle-receiving bore may be enlarged instead. However, if a magnitude of an outer diameter of the nozzle body is kept as it is in this case (i.e., if the magnitude of the outer diameter of the nozzle body is not changed even when the inner diameter of the needle-receiving bore is enlarged), a thickness of the nozzle body is decreased, thus the pressure resistance performance being reduced.